Admissions

Ashley N. Southerland is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Crowell & Moring, where she practices in the firm's Litigation and Health Care groups and is a member of the Digital Health Practice.

Ashley represents domestic and multinational companies in complex commercial litigation before federal and state courts, administrative agencies, and arbitral forums. Her litigation practice spans various industries, including health care and higher education. Ashley represents and counsels managed care organizations and other health care entities in various state and federal regulatory matters. She also counsels private universities in the areas of compliance and litigation risk management.

Ashley’s health care practice also focuses on digital health and health information technology. Her digital health counseling work spans several areas, including blockchain/distributed ledger technology and health care, health IT vendor contracting, and digital health reimbursement matters. Ashley’s work on blockchain and health care was recently published in Bloomberg BNA’s Health IT Law & Industry Report. Ashley represents various digital health clients, ranging from large hospital systems to health care consortiums and startup companies.

Ashley is an active participant in the firm’s pro bono program. In 2015, she was selected as Crowell & Moring’s Loaned Associate to the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. From June 2015 to January 2016, Ashley represented indigent tenants in eviction actions, successfully negotiating favorable settlement agreements for her clients and participating in all stages of the pre-trial litigation process. In addition to working at Legal Aid, Ashley also represented a pro bono client in federal post-conviction proceedings in the state of Florida, and helped secure tax-exempt status for an organization dedicated to mentoring underprivileged high school men. In recognition of her pro bono contributions, Ashley received the firm’s 2014 George Bailey Award, and was a New York State Bar Association Empire State Counsel honoree in 2014 and 2015.

Before joining Crowell & Moring, Ashley served as a law clerk to the Honorable Charles R. Wilson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Immediately prior, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jillyn K. Schulze, magistrate judge, of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.

Ashley received her J.D. from Cornell Law School in 2011, where she served as an acquisitions editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. During law school, Ashley interned with the Honorable Inez Smith Reid of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. She was also a member of the Cornell Death Penalty Project and externed at the Center for Children's Law and Policy, where she assessed the conditions of confinement at New York City secure juvenile detention facilities. In addition, Ashley served as an “attorney for the child,” and represented clients in custody proceedings in Tompkins County Family Court. Ashley graduated from Duke University in 2008, where she was a Mellon Mays Fellow. She received her A.B. in sociology, with distinction in the major.

Affiliations

Admitted to practice: District of Columbia, New York, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

Memberships

American Health Lawyers Association
American Bar Association
New York State Bar Association